HIVES, 83 



Clydesdale, and other breeds, what would agriculture 

 have been 1 Would it be worth the attention of men of 

 skill and energy ? So it is, and so it will be, with bees 

 kept in small hives. They are hardly worth the attention 

 they require, and the profits from them will never call 

 out that enthusiastic energy and latent power which, put 

 into play, makes the most of everything. Of course 

 apiculture is a thing of trifling importance to agriculture ; 

 but we hold that the general adoption of large hives will 

 bring about a reform and revolution in bee-management, 

 that wUl confer large and lasting blessings on the rural 

 population of this and other countries. 



But let us return once more to the hives which weighed 

 from 100 lb. up to 168 lb. Why, it would take three 

 ordinary English hives, if not more, to hold as much 

 honey as was in one of these hives — it would take three 

 or four of them to hold bees enough to gather as much ia 

 the same space of time. 



It is not necessary to say half so much in favour of 

 large hives to minds unwarped and unprejudiced ; but as 

 almost all writers on bees, ancient and modern, have 

 recommended hives unjprofitably small, we have the hard 

 and painful task to perform of nullifying, in some degree, 

 the influence of their opinions, ere we can successfully 

 recommend the general adoption of hives profitably large. 



It is well known that, in very fine seasons for honey, 

 there are considerable profits derived from the produce of 

 small hives : we know this very well. But we wish the 

 reader to know that in such favourable seasons, the pro- 

 duce and profits of large hives, well managed, are incom- 

 parably larger. The writer's father once realised £20 

 profit from two hives in one season, and £9, 12s. from 

 another held jointly by himself and James Brown of the 

 same place, And the profits came from the honey 



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